The Pharm.D. curriculum at Ferris State University is designed to prepare successful
graduates with the skills necessary to work with the latest breakthroughs in drug
treatment and practice in a diverse number of health care settings. The Doctor of
Pharmacy coursework builds first on the foundations of:

Biochemistry/Biotechnology: How complex biochemical systems of the human body operate and how medications and
their chemical properties can be used to modify these processes.

Medicinal Chemistry (Drug Action): The identification of how the structure of organic molecules affect how they will
act on the human body; as well as the design and synthesis of unique new molecules
to treat specific human diseases. In other words, how drug products are "put together"
at the molecular level.

Pharmacology (Drug Action): The study of how molecular compounds interact with human physiologic processes.
Every drug we take affects most, if not all human organ systems. In pharmacology,
we study this interaction.

Pharmaceutics (Drug Delivery): How drug products and drug delivery systems are built. This discipline deals with
the process of how a new drug molecule is incorporated into a dosage form (e.g. tablet,
capsule, transdermal patch, inhalation, injectables) to deliver it safely and effectively
to the human body.

Upon completions of the foundational sciences of pharmacy, the student is then transitioned
to the clinical science of pharmacotherapeutics. Pharmacotherapeutics deals with
how we clinically apply drug therapy to a given disease state in the context of the
patient. Each patient possesses a unique set of characteristics (age, gender, genetics,
additional disease states, organ function, etc.), which must be considered when selecting
drug therapy. The pharmacy student learns to make drug therapy recommendations with
consideration of these characteristics. In addition to the clinical sciences, students
learn valuable communication, drug literature evaluation, pharmacy management, pharmacy
law and practice skills.

The classroom and laboratory education and training is augmented with over 1,700 hours
of field experience for each student in an array of pharmacy practice settings including
a rich balance between community-based and institutional (e.g. hospital) sites. Elective
experiences also exist in a diversity of pharmacy settings including: